Apple's Tim Cook scoffs at iPhone competitors — The iPhone was the hot new thing a year or two ago, but now it's seeing increasing competition from Google, Palm, and others — for example, my editor Matt Marshall just declared that he's abandoning his iPhone for Droid, the Android phone coming at the end of the month.

First Images: BlackBerry Watch is FOR REAL! — * Update - Just to be clear as I've seen some confusion in the commments, but as far as we know at this time the inPulse watch is not being made by/for BlackBerry (it won't feature a BlackBerry logo), but is being made for use with BlackBerry Smartphones.

Motorola Droid hands on! — We absolutely nailed this puppy to the wall over and over and over again, so it's only fitting we'd be doing the first actual unveiling, right? We're not going to get too in-depth though, that will come at a later time. Here are some brief thoughts before the photos:

A Nerd's Take On The Future Of News Media — There are a lot of new technologies which already affect news consumption and future business models. As a nerd, I'm excited by the new tech, particularly mobile, including new display systems and pervasive connectivity.

Giving Groups a Stronger Voice — Facebook Groups have long been a part of the Facebook experience as a way for people to organize and discuss particular issues of interest. However, until now, Group activities have been isolated to the group page and it was often difficult to find out what currently was going on within a group.

This shouldn't be the image of Hack Day — I love hack days. I was working in the vicinity of Chad Dickerson when he organised the first internal Yahoo! Hack Day back in 2005, and I've since participated in hack day events at Yahoo!, Global Radio and the Guardian.

EU's MySQL inquiry may backfire for open source — It takes time, leadership, and a fair amount of luck to successfully build an open-source community. It also takes money. Lots of it, if IBM's $1 billion commitment to Linux is any indication. — Unfortunately, the return …

Ad agencies stump for Microsoft-Yahoo search deal — An advertising industry association—backed by four of the world's largest ad agencies—sent a letter to the Department of Justice Monday endorsing the Microsoft-Yahoo search deal, saying it “enhances competition.”

Mob Rule! How Users Took Over Twitter — Last August, the people who putatively run Twitter — the small crew that three years ago launched the world's fastest-growing communications medium — announced a relatively minor change in the way the site functions.

Apple Restores Banned 3G TV iPhone App — In another episode in an apparent series of developer-friendly moves, Apple seems to have unbanned a previously banned 3G TV iPhone application over the weekend. — In another episode in an apparent series of developer-friendly moves …

Fake security software in millions of computers: Symantec — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tens of millions of U.S. computers are loaded with scam security software that their owners may have paid for but which only makes the machines more vulnerable, according to a new Symantec report on cybercrime.

Accel Expands In India — Accel has hired Neeraj Bharadwaj away from Apax, where he worked for a decade, to build up Accel's portfolio in India. — So far, Accel has made early stage investments in India out of a $60 million seed stage fund it closed late last year.

Times Says It Will Cut 100 Newsroom Jobs — The New York Times plans to eliminate 100 newsroom jobs - about 8 percent of the total - by year's end, offering buyouts to union and non-union employees, and resorting to layoffs if it cannot get enough people to leave voluntarily, the paper announced on Monday.